“Experts in every poll (and apparently of every political stripe) rewarded ‘progressive’ presidents.” Tweet This

The respondents were all current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, which has at times been criticized for advancing a left-leaning viewpoint.

“To do this, we first asked respondents to rate each president on a scale of 0-100 for their overall greatness, with 0=failure, 50=average, and 100=great,” the professors explain. “We then averaged the ratings for each president and ranked them from highest average to lowest.”

Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Frank Delano Roosevelt topped the charts with 95.03, 92.59 and 89.09 points respectively. President Trump, however, came in last with only 12.34 points.

According to the survey, the current commander-in-chief is ranked right below James Buchanan—who is frequently criticized for his inept handling of the secession crisis that immediately preceded the Civil War—and William Henry Harrison, who died just one month after taking office.

The 2018 survey also asked scholars which president’s likeness they would like to see added to those of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt on Mt. Rushmore.

While FDR came first with 108 votes, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Washington managed to receive a total of five votes even though they are already included in the monument.

The survey also examined presidential polarization, and asked the responding scholars “to identify up to five individual presidents they believed were the most polarizing, and then rank order them with the first president being the most polarizing, the second as next most polarizing, and so on.”

According to the study, Trump “is by far the most polarizing of the ranked presidents,” with Andrew Jackson and George W. Bush coming in second and third, respectively.

Presidential greatness surveys have been criticized by some scholars for being too subjective and for comparing the un-finished record of sitting presidents to the legacies of historical figures.

“Presidential greatness, however, is not decided over the short run,” Nelson Polsby contended in a 1977 article. “Yet the things that mass publics like today are frequently attractive to historians when painted on a larger canvas.”

Meanwhile, a 2012 Baylor University study found that “experts in every poll (and apparently of every political stripe) rewarded ‘progressive’ presidents, gauged to be above average in their pursuit of ‘equal justice for all,’ with higher ratings.”

“This does not show that experts are simply biased, but rather suggests that evaluation now takes place in a cultural milieu that favors presidents dedicated to equal justice,” the study adds.

Posting Policy

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.